


for science (this has nothing to do with science)

by ericaismeg, foxerica (ericaismeg)



Series: stiles/derek ficlets [19]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Office, Boss Derek Hale, Boss/Employee Relationship, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, M/M, Office, Office Party, Pranks and Practical Jokes, Secret Santa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-28
Updated: 2015-12-28
Packaged: 2018-05-10 02:08:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,015
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5564956
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ericaismeg/pseuds/ericaismeg, https://archiveofourown.org/users/ericaismeg/pseuds/foxerica
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"I bought my friend a neon pink dildo as a gag gift but I accidentally got the presents mixed up and gave it to you instead and now I have to awkwardly explain what happened” AU</p>
            </blockquote>





	for science (this has nothing to do with science)

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted [here!](http://foxerica.tumblr.com/post/135723398117/dude-the-i-bought-my-friend-a-neon-pink-dildo-as)
> 
> also so I had _no_ idea what they do in the office. i didn't even _try_ to come up with something when I posted it on tumblr. but then the lovely [christina](http://www.prettythinker.tumblr.com) sent me this:
>
>> @prettythinker said: Your sterek office au is very cute. Also I would think a magazine and they’re switching to an online format (with Derek having experience because his family owns a different magazine and he and Peter brought it to the online format because it is the 21st century mom, and people want their content EVERYWHERE). Maybe a magazine focused at college aged people, sort of like buzzfeed meets Cosmo? So they’re working on beer pong to generate tips? 
> 
> so yay! au accepted (despite there being no mention of this at all; maybe if it wasn't a ficlet but something that I put some effort into, I would've written it in!) 

♚♞♚♞♚

 

 

“That’s weird. I had to…sign in?” Scott greets Stiles when he steps into the door frame of his office. Stiles looks up, surprised and confused for a moment. Scott has been coming here so often that the receptionist usually waves him in. No one cares if Scott signs in.

Stiles remembers Caitlin’s promotion last week. “Oh, Kira’s new. I’ll have to let her know that you don’t need to sign in. I should’ve mentioned that to her.”

Scott nods, peeking back out the door. Stiles already sees the hearts in his eyes. He smiles at his friend, knowing the next few weeks will be _Kira this_ and _Kira that_ and _what do you think Kira would think about this?_

Scott says, “She seems nice. She takes her job seriously. It’s good. Do you want to go out for lunch?”

“Hmm, sure. I just need a few more minutes,” Stiles tells him. “Why don’t you go chat up Kira and I’ll be out in a minute?”

“Sounds good. Hey, did you ever find a Secret Santa gift for your scary boss, Erica?” Scott adds, leaning into Stiles’ office now. His hand curled around the door frame to hold him up.

“She’s not scary. She’s intense and a little unconventional. But yeah. I bought her a bright pink over-sized dildo. Before you lecture me about professionalism, remember this is my boss who paid for a _stripper_ to come to my _office_ at lunch to cheer me up a few months ago,” Stiles says. Erica’s a real piece of work, and at some point, she’d become one of his closest friends. According to her, friends do whatever it takes to make friends happy. Why she ever thought a stripper would make him happy, he’s not sure. He appreciated the thought though, but had sat down and chatted with the stripper instead. It hadn’t been a bad day, now that he thinks of it.

Scott scoffs. “Dude. This office is _scary._ How are you still working here?”

Stiles shrugs in response. Scott hovers for a moment, waiting for an answer. All Stiles can say is, “Hey, since that tight-ass came to work for us, things have been a little more tame.”

“Oh right. Thank god you didn’t get him for Secret Santa, eh?” Scott says, amused. When Stiles looks back up again, his best friend has disappeared from the door frame. He can hear Scott’s voice as he chats with Kira. She’s probably blushing.

He hears her laugh and smiles when he focuses back on his email. He grins when he finally hits ‘SEND.’

 

 

> **FROM:** **_Stiles Stilinski [stiles@themartingroup.com]_**  
>  **TO: _Jackson Whittemore [jackson@themartingroup.com]_**  
>  **DATE: _12/19/2015 at 11:53AM  
>  _ SUBJECT:** **_Re: TRADE SECRET SANTAS WITH ME ASSWIPE_**
> 
> **Jackass,**
> 
> **No, I will not trade Erica for Derek. I’ve already bought her gift. SUCKS TO BE YOU.**
> 
> **S.**

 

♚♞♚♞♚

 

“Out again, Stilinski?” Derek asks, looking unimpressed. Stiles feels a little sheepish, as if he’s done something wrong. Derek didn’t approve of employees going out for lunch. He’d prefer it if everyone sat at their desk, and continued working while eating. He nods, wondering exactly what the CEO thinks of him. It can’t be good. He only gives Stiles a disapproving look. “How long this time?”

“Forty-three minutes,” Stiles answers immediately. He’d timed it just in case. He bites his tongue to stop himself from adding _sir._

“Hm,” Derek says, nodding slowly. “Alright, well, get back to work.”

“Will do,” Stiles says. He wants to salute the guy. Seriously. Derek stands in the hallway, watching as Stiles saunters back to his office. Stiles can feel his eyes on him the entire way, and he resists turning around to look. Instead, he tries to catch his breath before sitting down at his desk.

The thing is that since Derek has come to work for them everyone has become about 75% more efficient. Profits are up. Business is booming. It’s great…if you ignore the fact that people are generally more miserable. They do have fun getting drinks and talking about what a dick Derek is though.

Stiles can’t help how he feels. He’s attracted to Derek in ways that he can’t even begin to describe. On more than one occasion, his coworkers teased him about his crush on Derek. It’s because sometimes when they talked, his face flushed, and his mouth stopped working. The guy is seriously attractive. Even if he looks ready to murder Stiles some days.

He pulls up his email and sees one from Jackson. Oh boy.

 

> **FROM: _Jackson Whittemore [jackson@themartingroup.com]  
> _** **TO: _Stiles Stilinski [stiles@themartingroup.com]  
>  _** **DATE: _12/19/2015 at 12:16PM  
>  _** **SUBJECT:** _Re: TRADE SECRET SANTAS WITH ME ASSWIPE_
> 
> **STILINSKI I HATE YOU.**
> 
> **I thought you’d want to switch. You could give him a shitty blow job for Christmas and pretend you’re good at it.**
> 
> **You’re the jackass.**

 

Stiles rolls his eyes. Jackson’s the ever mature one around here. Yeah, right. The familiar back-and-forth between them eases any tension in Stiles’ shoulders as he proceeds to tell Jackson about how good he is at blow jobs and how he’s missing out on a Stilinski special.

Thoughts of Derek’s ass in those pants he’s wearing today only pop up once or twice while he’s typing.

 

♚♞♚♞♚

 

“Alright!” Lydia announces to the room. She doesn’t need to clap or whistle. Everyone immediately turns their attention towards her. She smiles, glancing at individual faces. “It’s time for Secret Santa! Jackson, why don’t you choose someone to go first?”

“Danny,” Jackson says, immediately. He wanders over to the table of gifts to find Danny’s name on one of them in Erica’s crazy writing.

She’d done all the labels last week and had handed everyone a sheet with everyone’s names. People had to choose the name of whoever they’d gotten for Secret Santa. They also supplied everyone with different sized bags and wrapping paper. It had been their way of making sure it was fair and no one discovered who gave who what. They’d learned from previous mistakes.

“You’re too sweet,” Danny teases as he walks forward. Jackson hands him a gift, and everyone huddles around in a semi-circle to watch. Danny opens a bag to find an external hard drive in it. He whistles and shouts a thank you to whoever bought it for him. He tells Boyd to get his gift next.

Jackson hands Boyd a gift. He opens it, only to find himself with a pair of women’s panties. Boyd doesn’t even blink in surprise. He smiles at the note that falls out of them and tucks them into his pants pocket. “Derek.”

“You know, I’d like to remind everyone that Secret Santa gifts should be _office appropriate,”_ Derek announces as he walks up. Stiles rolls his eyes. He’s going to shit his pants when he sees the pink dildo for Erica. Jackson hands him a box. “Thanks.”

Stiles nudges Erica and whispers, “You’re the one who gave Boyd the panties, right?”

“How’d you know?” she murmurs, looking at him now. She couldn’t hide her amusement and excitement if her life depended on it.

“Please. I was with you when you bought those,” Stiles reminds her. “Besides, everyone knows–”

 _“Looks like someone is about to lose their job,”_ Jackson’s voice comes clear as day. Stiles stops talking and looks to see Derek holding an over-sized bright pink dildo. Stiles’ jaw drops. Erica starts snickering beside him and he can’t even nudge her to shut up.

He swallows.

Derek’s staring at the dildo with wide eyes and full out shock. Maybe even horror. He clears his throat and says, “I’m going to assume that this is a prank. Well, whoever my secret Santa is…you got me!”

Stiles almost coughs. _Of course,_ their uptight CEO would be able to take a joke despite the fact that he’s been bitching about being _office appropriate_  for the past few months. He holds the dildo up as though he’d just won a medal, and Erica’s the first to start clapping and cheering. Derek smiles, but Stiles knows that’s his polite _I’m super uncomfortable right now_ smile.

“Thanks,” Derek says. He tucks the dildo back in the box and heads back to his spot at the back of the room. Stiles can’t keep his eyes off him. He realizes that Jackson is the jackass who switched the labels on the gifts. He must have seen him bring in Erica’s gift and thought that it’d be funny to switch. To get back at Stiles.

He swallows and glances nervously at Erica. Fuck knows what Jackson had gotten Derek.

“Man, whoever did that has _balls.”_ Erica stands on her tiptoes to see if she could see what Lydia is opening.

Stiles looks back at Derek to see him staring down in the box. His face is full of confusion and awe. Stiles wants to crawl in a hole. Jackson is _such_ a douche.

“Stiles! You go up next. We all know that you get antsy when you don’t open your gift right away,” Lydia announces. Erica has to push Stiles forward before he moves.

He stumbles up to the front and Jackson shoves his gift at him. His face says everything that Stiles needs to know. Jackson hisses, “Got you.”

“I’ll make you pay,” Stiles murmurs back. He starts to tear back the wrapping paper on his gift. He’s not sure what he expects. Usually, someone gets him food or a gift certificate for food. But when he sees the title of the book, he tears the paper away a little faster.

There, in his hands, he holds an old book. His heart starts to pound when his finger tips graze the faded cover. He opens it carefully to read [the inside page](http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/FrameBase?content=/en/imagegallery/imagegallery.shtml?images=http://pictures.abebooks.com/PIA/416772886.jpg,http://pictures.abebooks.com/PIA/416772886_2.jpg%26seq=1) and a lump forms in his throat.

“Wow, your Secret Santa _sucks._ That book is so old,” Jackson says, laughing. “They couldn’t even buy you a new book.”

“It’s the [first edition of Robin Hood](http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=416772886&searchurl=kn%3Dscribner%26tn%3Dmerry%2520adventures%2520of%2520robin%2520hood%26an%3Dhoward%2520pyle%26fe%3Don),” Stiles whispers. “Published in 1883. This probably sells for almost two grand. This is too much–”

“Wow,” Danny murmurs from somewhere in the room. “Someone must actually like you, Stilinski.”

Stiles nods, staring down at the book in awe. Considering how old it is, he’s surprised that the book isn’t falling apart. It seems to be in reasonable condition. He runs his fingers over the [illustrations on the front](http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/FrameBase?content=/en/imagegallery/imagegallery.shtml?images=http://pictures.abebooks.com/PIA/416772886.jpg,http://pictures.abebooks.com/PIA/416772886_2.jpg%26seq=2) once more. 

He looks up, his eyes wandering around the room. Most people look surprised or a little bored. He has no idea who did this for him, but when his eyes land on Derek, he wonders. Derek had interrupted a conversation Stiles had been having with Scott a few weeks ago. Stiles had been reading his copy of The Adventures of Robin Hood again. Whenever he did, he went into long rants about how inspiring Robin Hood is.

“Hurry up, Stiles. I wanna open my gift!” Erica shouts from the back. Her voice forces him to tear his eyes off Derek, whose expression gave no sign that this was his doing.

He clutches the book and makes his way back to his spot. He waves Erica forward, and she grins at him. He’s dazed. Stiles has no idea what Erica ends up getting because he can’t focus on her opening her gift. She must call on someone else because she comes back to stand beside Stiles. She’s pouting as she says, “Someone doesn’t know me at all.”

Stiles looks up at her to see she’s holding some James Bond movies in her hand. He snorts. Jackson is such a dick. He shakes his head, wondering how to get himself out of this mess.

Jackson hands out the rest of the gifts, and people seem generally excited. Kira’s surprised that she has two gifts and her entire face flushes with embarrassment. But she’s pleased and thanks everyone for making this an easy transition into her new job.

While the party starts back up again, Stiles watches Derek head back to his office. He should’ve known that Derek wouldn’t stick around for the office party. He hadn’t exactly made friends with many people. He’d come in and enforced rules that no one had paid attention to for years. But Stiles knows. He knows that this company is better for it.

He looks down at his book again before he trails after the CEO. Things hadn’t been easy for anyone. Derek had come into this business thinking everyone would be professional and productive. The team knows how to be both, but they were always having fun and playing pranks on one another. It had been inefficient and profits had been down, which means their annual bonus pool would be lower too. Thanks to Derek, they might get a little more this year.

Stiles knocks on the door, hovering, until Derek looks up. “Stilinski. Did you do this?”

Derek’s referring to the sex toy that is currently sitting on his desk. He winces, steps into the office, and shuts the door behind him. “Yes and no.”

“Yes and no,” Derek repeats, his tone flat.

“Indirectly, I am responsible. That was _supposed_  to be a gag gift for Erica. But Jackson was pissed that I wouldn’t switch with him so he switched the labels on the gifts,” Stiles says, frowning. “I’m really sorry about–”

Derek waves his hand. “No matter, Stilinski. I’ll give it to Erica at the end of the party. I’m sure she’ll be delighted.”

“Uh, um, thanks.”

_This cannot be more awkward._

“Did you like your gift?” Derek asks, and Stiles hears the uncertainty in his voice. “I thought maybe–”

“You got this for me?” Stiles sputters. “Derek–Mr. Hale–this is too much.”

Derek shrugs. “My family has a huge library full of many first editions of books. They’ll never notice that that one is missing.”

Stiles gapes at him. Wow. Okay. “How do you know I won’t sell it for a profit?”

“I think you appreciate the story far too much to do that,” Derek responds, his voice sounding a little unsure. He looks down at the pink dildo and quietly asks, “Do you think I’m–”

“You’re…?” Stiles prompts when he doesn’t finish his sentence.

“Never mind.”

“No, no, dude, what were you going to ask?” Stiles says, moving to sit down in the chair across from him. “Is it personal? Because I am a vault. You can tell me anything and I won’t judge and no one else will here it.”

Derek seems to consider this for a moment. He picks up the pink dildo in his hands, studying it, and then he asks, “Do you think I’m boring?”

Stiles tries not to snort. Of _course,_  he thinks Derek is boring. But that’s before he _picked up the dildo_  and started running his fingers absentmindedly over it. Stiles can’t breathe.

“Uh, I think you can be a bit uptight but you handed the… _toy_ ,” he says, coughing, “surprise well. You even smiled. So I think you’re not as uptight as you seem to be.”

Derek doesn’t say anything for a moment. He puts the toy down on the table again. “Everyone loves Erica because she’s fun and wild and crazy. People have issues and they go to her first. I’m unapproachable. My sisters tell me all the time.”

Stiles glances at the closed office door. Maybe he shouldn’t have come. Derek seems to be going through something and he has no idea how to handle it. Instead of leaving, he says, “Then don’t stay in your office all night, Let’s go back to the party and get hammered.”

“I can’t do that. This is a professional setting–”

“–and it’s a perfect place to get reasonably drunk and show the rest of your staff that you’re not an uptight prick,” Stiles finishes for him.

“They think I’m a prick?” Derek asks, eyes widening. “I didn’t mean to…it’s just…it’s so hard. Everyone here acts like a family and I’m supposed to be leading them and no one…”

“Look at it as an experiment then.”

“Like a social science experiment?”

“Yeah. Let’s do it for science! All of mankind depends on whether or not you are approachable in the workplace,” Stiles says, dramatically. Derek rolls his eyes, but his lips curve a little.

“Okay. I guess.”

“Well, c’mon then,” Stiles says, standing up. He bets Erica would pay him big bucks if she got _Derek Hale_  drunk at a staff party. He waits a moment before Derek finally does the same. He has a feeling his night is about to get very interesting.

“I’ll have one drink,” he tells Stiles. He pauses before adding, “For science.”

Stiles snorts. Who knew his boss had a sense of humour after all?

 

♚♞♚♞♚

 

About four mixed drinks and six tequila shots later, Stiles can’t stop laughing. He’s standing in the corner of the room with the new receptionist, Kira, who is pounding him for information on Scott. Jackson occasionally throws something at him through the door from his seat at the table in the lunch room. Erica and Derek are playing a round of beer pong that Derek seems to be losing pathetically. Everyone else is either cheering them on or in their own conversations.

“Kira,” Stiles interrupts. He puts a hand gently on her arm. “I will give you Scott’s number and you two can set up a date.”

“But what if–?”

“He’s already been texting me about you. He’s interested.” Stiles pulls out his phone and forwards her the information via text. “Why don’t we go play some beer pong?”

“Okay!” she says, her face bright and happy. She clutches her phone in her hands, and Stiles can’t help but think they’ll be good for one another.

“Derek, Derek, Derek,” Stiles says, laughing when he walks up beside him. “You are losing horribly.”

“Tell me something I don’t know, Stilinski!” Derek shouts as if Stiles isn’t standing beside him. There’s no anger in his voice; he’s focused on throwing his ball.

“Why don’t we team up and take Erica down together?” Stiles offers.

“Hey! I want a partner then too,” Erica says, pouting. “None of this two-against-one bull shit.”

“Alright.” Derek looks at Stiles. “You better be good.”

“I’m the best!” Stiles brags. “We’re going to win this shit!”

They don’t. Erica asks Boyd to be her partner and not only is Boyd _amazing_  at beer pong but he didn’t even look where he was shooting for two of his wins. He was too busy being distracted by Erica. It’s _disgusting_ …ly cute.

“You lied to me!” Derek shouts. Stiles realizes that _maybe_  this wasn’t the best idea. His uptight boss is now poking his chest, with amusement all over his face, and Stiles feels himself wanting to kiss him right now. Derek stumbles forward and puts a hand on Stiles’ chest to stop himself. “Oh boy. I haven’t been this drunk in years.”

“Alright, big guy,” Stiles says, slipping Derek’s arm over his shoulders. “Why don’t I take you home?”

“Oh. Okay. Probably for the best. Ever’body is going home soon?” Derek asks.

“Yeah,” Stiles whispers. “Yeah, they are. C’mon.”

They manage to slip out of the office without many people noticing. Stiles gets Derek in a cab and recites his home address off his head. Working for a guy as uptight as Derek meant that Stiles learned quickly where he lived so he could trash Derek’s yard with toilet paper on Hallowe’en next year. He had had a whole plan.

But looking at drunk and happy Derek right now, he’s not sure he’ll follow through with that plan.

“Stiles?” Derek asks, before Stiles leans out of the cab. “Stiles, come with me.”

“Where?”

“Come with me,” Derek murmurs. “I don’t want to go home alone. Not again.”

Stiles is just drunk enough to climb into the cab and ignore all of the thoughts in his head telling him that this is a bad idea. Derek snuggles up closer to him, and rests his head on Stiles’ chest. As if this is normal. As if they do this all the time. As if…as if he likes it.

Stiles runs his hand through Derek’s hair.

“Mmm.”

He smiles and leans his head back against the seat, looking out the window. They wouldn’t do anything tonight. They wouldn’t even kiss. The least Stiles can do is make sure he gets into his bed okay though.

 

♚♞♚♞♚

 

“That party was intense last night,” Erica says, poking her head into Stiles’ office. She definitely has sex hair, all wild and tangled. Her cheeks are rosy with delight, and she winks. He’s willing to bet that the makeup she’s wearing is from last night too. “How was making out with Mr. Hale?”

“I didn’t,” Stiles says, pretending to focus on an email. “In fact, I dragged him into his bed, tucked him in, and left.”

“Wow. You could’ve at least slept on the couch and made him breakfast,” Erica says, pouting. “It would’ve been so cute.”

“Since when do you think we’re cute?”

“Since I saw the way you two were giggling at the water cooler doing shots, thinking you were both so badass,” Erica answers, strolling into the office now. She doesn’t sit on the chair. That’d be too conventional. Instead, she drapes herself on the edge of his desk and smirks. “Ask me about my night.”

“I really don’t want to. But okay. I’ll bite. Did you go home with Boyd?”

“Boy _did I.”_  

“Oh god. Spare me the details!”

“Never,” Erica answers. “They’re too juicy. So, of course, I know he’d never ask me to come home with him so I–”

A knock at the door interrupts her. They both turn to see Derek standing there. He looks good. Actually, he looks _great._  As if he hadn’t been drunk out of his mind last night. “Erica, could I have a minute?”

“Sure, sailor,” Erica says. She spins herself off Stiles’ desk and pauses at the door. Her eyes meet Stiles. “You know I’m right.”

As she disappears from sight, Stiles shouts, “You didn’t even say anything!”

Derek glances around the office, looking a little uneasy. Stiles huffs, because she _hadn’t_  said much. But she’d said enough for him to know that she wants him to go for it. With his CEO. No way.

“About last night–”

“Don’t apologize,” Stiles interrupts.

“I wanted to thank you,” Derek finishes.

“Oh.”

“I came in today and everyone seems more friendly with me than usual. So thank you for the advice about loosening up last night. And for taking me home. Jackson informed me that you put me in bed?” Derek asks, frowning now.

Stiles shrugs. “Yeah, I did. No big deal. I’m glad you had fun. You _suck_  at beer pong though.”

“That was the first time I’ve ever played,” Derek admits.

“What? Oh my god _no way.”_

It’s why the end up setting up the lunch room table as a beer pong table and playing some non-alcoholic rounds. Stiles keeps telling him it’s better with alcohol, but Derek insists that he has to be somewhat good at it sober to be great at it drunk. “Practice makes perfect, Stilinski.”

They spend an hour and a half at it. People come in and out of the lunch room for various reasons, but no one seems to question what they’re doing. Only Boyd pauses to give Derek a suggestion before making his coffee. Erica comes and sits on the counter to watch them for fifteen minutes. She talks about Boyd the entire time and Derek ends up being the one to kick her out for getting too personal.

Stiles is laughing when Derek tries to mimic Boyd and the shots he’d taken without looking. Derek’s pong ball misses the table completely. “Dude, dude, _that was so bad.”_

“As if you could do better without looking!” Derek protests.

Stiles takes a ball and looks at the wall. He’s about to shoot when he catches Derek making a face at him from the corner of his eye. He tosses the ball as he turns to stick his tongue out at his boss.

“What the fuck!” Derek shouts, when the ball lands in the cup. “How did you _do_  that?”

Stiles doubles over laughing. Derek looks so personally offended by it. He wonders if they could’ve had this easy back-and-forth before. If Stiles had spent any time talking to him before. Last night had been the first real conversation they’d had. “Are you okay?”

“No,” Derek says, frowning as he peers in the cup at the ball. “I’m dumbfounded. This game is much more difficult than you make it look.”

Someone clears their throat and they turn to see Lydia standing in the doorway. Stiles swallows. She’s the _owner_  of the company, so he could see how bad this must look to her. She steps in, taking the ball from Derek’s cup, and shakes her head.

“Boys, you both suck at this game. Watch and learn.”

She sinks five balls in a row. Stiles gapes at her and Derek looks at her as though he’s found new respect for her.

Lydia smiles and says, “You’ve been at this far too long today. Get back to work and practice tomorrow. Not as long though. Okay?”

She saunters out of the room. Derek looks at Stiles with surprise. “I–I’ve never gotten in trouble before.”

Stiles shrugs. “You get used to it.”

 

♚♞♚♞♚

 

Hanging out with Derek is _fun._  Stiles discovers a thousand new sides to him and he always ends up hovering in Derek’s office. Lunches with Scott happen a little less frequently, but Scott doesn’t mind. He’s taking Kira out.

Erica points out how much time they’ve been spending together because she whines about missing Stiles. He tells her to join them in Derek’s office then. When she does, Boyd comes looking for her, and the four of them end up making it a regular thing. Sometimes Lydia or Jackson join them.

Danny makes an appearance once, but he left because the “sexual tension is unbearable.”

Stiles wonders how long he can keep up the preface of only being friends with Derek. It’s hard though, because Derek has started to relax around him. He’s starting to feel as though he really knows the man. And it’s messing with his heart.

“Let’s do a double date tonight,” Erica says, stretching on Boyd’s lap. She curls back up into him. Derek hadn’t even bothered to tell her how unprofessional it was, because he figured out that there was no training Erica.

“A double date?” Stiles asks, looking up from his phone. He’d been Googling something to prove to Derek he was right (as usual).

“Yeah. We could get dinner and go see the new Captain America movie. It looks good,” Erica answers. She’s not even looking at him.

Stiles glances at Derek, who shrugs and says, “I have wanted to see that movie.”

“Okay,” Stiles tentatively says. “Only if we get Mexican for dinner.”

“Deal,” Boyd answers. He leans forward and kisses Erica on the nose.

Stiles fiddles with his phone and tries to avoid Derek’s gaze. _A double date._

♚♞♚♞♚

 

“They seriously ditched us to go have sex!” Stiles exclaims when they leave the theater. “You should _never_  miss Captain America to _have sex.”_

Derek snorts. “Good to see where your priorities lie.”

Stiles playfully shoves him before they bounce back a little closer to one another. Tonight had been perfect. Derek hadn’t made things weird at all. Stiles glances down at Derek’s hand and wishes he could hold it. But that’d be inappropriate.

“Steve Rogers is a gift to this world,” Stiles tells him.

“So are you,” Derek responds. He glances at Stiles nervously for his reaction.

Stiles stops walking. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, _what?”_

“Stiles–I–”

“Platonically or romantically?” Stiles demands. “How did you mean that?”

“Does it matter?” Derek asks. “I know we’re good friends. You tell me all the time. C’mon, let’s go get into the car. It’s chilly.”

“Derek, wait, _no.”_

Derek stops walking. “Oh, okay. We can stay out here, but–”

“Were you being a _bro_  or were you being a _boyfriend_  when you said that?” Stiles asks him. His heart is thudding loud enough he can hear it in his ears. “I need to know. For science.”

“For science?” Derek asks, raising an eyebrow. “I…well, I meant it in a romantic sense, I guess, because I have romantic feelings towards you.”

“For science,” Stiles murmurs. He steps closer to Derek, and takes his gloved hand in his. He tugs him forward and smiles. “For biology. Or anatomy. Or sex-ed. Whatever you want to call it.”

“Um, Stiles.”

But then Stiles is kissing him. It’s not a crazy kiss. It’s light and relaxed. Derek nudges closer and wraps his free hand around the back of Stiles’ neck.

“See? For science.”

Derek lets out a laugh. “God, you’re such a dork.”

“Yeah. Yeah, but you _like me._  You want to be my _boyfriend.”_

“And you? What do you want?” Derek asks.

“I want to be your boyfriend too,” Stiles tells him, eyes bright. “It’s been fun, getting to know you. You’re amazing, even if you can be an uptight dumbass sometimes.”

“Well, you can be an unproductive, annoying dumbass. So. I guess it works out,” Derek responds.

“I take offense to that!” Stiles protests as they stumble towards the parking lot.

“Oh yeah? Then I take offense to you calling me uptight!”

Stiles bounces around until he pulls Derek in for another kiss and they sway across the lane. “Hi boyfriend.”

“Hi dork.”

“That’s not cute,” Stiles says. “You’re _supposed_  to say _hi boyfriend_  too.”

“Mmm, maybe I can make it up to you.”

“Okay,” Stiles answers as he climbs into the passenger seat of Derek’s car. Once Derek’s settled into the driver’s seat, Stiles asks, “Does this mean we can have sex at the office?”

“No sex at the office!”

“Erica and Boyd already do it!”

Derek looks scandalized and Stiles starts to laugh. He hopes some things never change.

 

♚♞♚♞♚

**Author's Note:**

> Find me [here!](http://www.foxerica.tumblr.com)


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